October has special
significance for the International Right of Way Association (IRWA), whose 10,000
members play a vital role in advancing the nation's transportation, water and
energy infrastructure projects. October is International Right of Way Month,
and in acknowledging the industry's role in bringing essential infrastructure
projects to life, IRWA launched a Project of the Year Competition.

Transportation fatalities
in the United States decreased by 9.2 percent in 2009 from 2008, according to
preliminary figures released today by the National Transportation Safety Board.
The data indicate that transportation fatalities in all modes totaled 35,928 in
2009, compared to 39,569 in 2008. Although highway, rail, aviation, deaths
declined, pipeline and marine fatalities showed an increase.

Union Pacific will continue
its aggressive investment in American transportation infrastructure by
reigniting its double-track initiative on the Sunset Route in the Southwestern
United States. With an investment of roughly $18 million by the end of this
year, Union Pacific will complete the double-tracking of nine miles of this
premium line in Imperial County, Calif., and another nine miles in Maricopa
County, Ariz., with more work planned for 2011. This project is part of $2.6-billion
to be spent by Union Pacific in 2010 to support current and future freight
transportation needs of its customers.

Senator Tom Harkin
(D-Iowa) said that a total of $3,009,763 will be coming to Iowa to cover the
cost of repairing damage to some of Iowa's smaller railroads sustained during
2008's historic storms and floods. The funding comes from the U.S. Department
of Transportation's (DOT) Federal Railroad Administration, and was initially
appropriated in the 2008 Disaster Appropriations bill. Harkin is a senior
member of the Appropriations subcommittee that funds transportation
initiatives.

New Jersey transportation
officials said Oct. 5 they had indefinitely suspended about 100 state-funded
road and rail projects in their early stages as the cash-strapped state
grapples with how to pay for needed infrastructure improvements over the long
haul, the Philadelphia Inquirer reports.

Bridge or tunnel? The
city of Fort Lauderdale, Fla., seems poised to plunge into another contentious
debate over the best way to get people past a body of water, the Sun-Sentinel
reports. A decade ago, the fight was over what to do with the 17th Street
Causeway over the Intracoastal Waterway. Today, it's the Florida East Coast
Railway and a proposed commuter train that needs to cross the New River in
downtown Fort Lauderdale without being held up by boats.

The New York MTA, which is
about to raise fares, wasted at least $722,000 on a safety program so fatally
flawed it should be scrapped, a scathing report concludes, the New York Daily
News reports. The Metropolitan Transportation Authority routinely miscalculated
how well contractors were doing in preventing accidents and curbing
injury-related costs on construction projects, the MTA inspector general's
office concluded. As a result, contractors got larger bonus payments than they
deserved.

The United States is
saddled with a rapidly decaying and woefully underfunded transportation system
that will undermine its status in the global economy unless Congress and the
public embrace innovative reforms, a bipartisan panel of experts concludes,
reports The Washington Post.

Mario Brault, president
of Huron Central Railway, sees on the horizon for the first time, a profit for
his company, Sault Ste Marie This Week reports. He doesn't look for huge sums
of money. Brault, upbeat and forthcoming, pointed out few companies can survive
without "a little bit of profit," and a C$33-million contribution
from the Government of Canada and the Province of Ontario has opened the way.